3rd stage is the queen stage not counting the hilly ITT. Finishing on a hill top finish should mean plenty of attacks, drama and gaps between favoruites. Sinkewitz is the big favourite before the race, but the two other German riders in Mehr-Wenige & Gerdemann should pose big threat to him. Reus and Boom will try to limit their looses as much as possibly to those better puncheurs before the final ITT test. Let the racing begin then!
The first attackers today, once again, form the break of the day. However this time, there’s only two of them. Present is Jos Pronk & Indulis Bekmanis. This means there will be fight in the peleton for some points left over during the stage.
Bekmanis early attack and high pace till the end makes sure he winds the 3rd category climb points ahead of Jos Pronk. Will anyone in the peleton make the move for the remainder of the points here?
The answer is yes. But the attack comes from someone you didn’t expect at all! It’s the German champion Dietmar Mehr-Wenige that takes the last points remaining and continues to ride alone for few km’s left after which he’s finally caught by the peleton. Strange move, but possibly showing his strength to other oponents!
With 60km’s remaining the gap stands at mere 1’27 led by the strong Rothaus – Aegon squadron. If such pace continues the peleton will make the catch possibly before the 2nd and 1st category climbs.
The first intermediate point was won by Bekmanis ahead of Pronk with Allan Davis winning the sprint for 3rd ahead of Thos Van Der Sande.
In the 2nd intermediate sprint, the roles are reversed. It’s Ponk who wins the point with Bekmanis in 2nd.
Simon Geschke winning the sprint for 3rd unchallenged, that’s another 2 bonus seconds to his lead.
The intense pace continued and as if planned, the break is caught with 48km to go, 1km before the 2nd category climb. With no surprise, straight away that means new attacks! The rider to initiate the first attack is the Russian, Dmitri Kozontchuk who’s countered by Nairo Quintana and two riders from Adira Isq-Project in Jorge Soto Pereira and once again, Dietmar Mehr-Wenige!
After insanely close fight it’s Dietmar Mehr-Wenige that wins the 2nd category climb and takes full points here! Nairo Quintana comes 2nd, with Dmitri Kozontchuk on 3rd. Jorge Soto Pereira gets 4th and the late attacker to join the group, Oleksandr Prevar gets 5th.
As we get onto the descent, the 5 riders have a minute lead on the peleton, who’s strangely enough led by Jaguar – Eritel & Sweedbank-PEAB. Both Rothaus and Sram have strength in numbers still in the peleton, but both decide to wait with their help to chase.
Meanwhile bit surprisingly Prevar decides to drop back to the peleton, the 4 leaders are trying to pull out some gap on the furiously chasing peleton. Soto Pereira is doing almost all of the work for his leader here. However with just less than 40km to go the gap stands at 1’03”.
5km’s later and the peleton is closing the break down. Dmitri Kozontchuk attacks from the break followed by Mehr-Wenige. Quintana and Soto Pereira don’t respond to this attack so far. There’s 2.5km to go until we end of the 1st category climb we are now on.
With 1.8km to go for the peleton, it’s Ion Izzagire who is the 2nd big favourite to jump out of the peleton! He’s followed by no other Patrik Sinkewitz! Rothaus – Aegon will have a tough job now trying to catch those riders without burning themselves too much for the finale!
The orginal duo are joined by Nairo Quintana who’s late attacks brings him back to the duo and wins the 1st category climb. Dmitri Kozontchuk gets 2nd and Mehr-Wenige 3rd, Quintana is now leading the King of Mountain Standings however there are points available at the finish line today, and Mehr-Wenige could take the jersey with Top 3 finish on the stage.
The later attackers from the peleton in form of Ion Izaggire and Patrik Sinkewitz along Soto Pereira catch up with the leaders and are now powering on to the finish. 18km remaining with around 1’20” on the peleton and 45” seconds on Linus Gerdemann who’s trying to bridge the gap to the escapees.
10km to go and the gap is at 45” seconds. There’s many teams now up front helping out with the chase! Linus Gerdemann gave up on his attempt of bridging the gap and his team is now main chaser in the pack. Soto Pereira also drops back from the break, and is now in the peleton, the Urguyan earlier efforts has affected him. Great ride for his leader though.
4.5km to go and due to concentrated effort the break is caught. However as soon as the catch is made, the original break member in Dmitri Kozontchuk attacks and is immediately countered by the fan’s favoruite, Patrik Sinkewitz!
1.5km to go and Rothaus assembles at front!The duo has 15” seconds on the peleton but this gap can be reduced instantly! It’s Xavier Zabalo, Jesus Tendero & Martin Velits doing all they can to bring them back!
We are under flame rouge! Dmitri Kozontchuk shoots out followed closely by Sinkewitz who has Quintana on his wheel right now! On the left, we see the World Champion make high acceleration already managing to catch up with the two leaders! Simon Geschke is trying to follow him, but can’t. Mehr-Wenige, Gerdemann and his two teammates look in good position two for the final 1km! Carlos Betancourt stays behind so far, waiting for right moment to launch it seems!
As Kozontchuk fades, Lars Boom goes past him immensely easy and is powering on with 500 meters to go! So far he’s totally unchallenged. Mehr-Wenige makes his move and goes past Sinkewitz but still doesn’t seem to have the power to challenge Boom! We can see for the first time Vasil Kiyrenka behind Geschke trying to close down the gap! Carlos Betancourt looks like only one with pace to challenge Boom, but is too far back to challenge him yet. There’s a sea of Sram-Riboxx riders, actually 4 up the front. Kai Reus & Konovalovas can be seen at the back, trying the best to catch up with the leaders.
Carlos Betancourt goes past Dietmar Mehr-Wenige in 2nd and is now looking to overhaul Boom with metres to go! Can he do it? Or will Boom make it to the finish and make it 3/3 for Rothaus in the race so far?
World Champion, Lars Boom takes the win in style! If Betancourt was just better postioned he might have won, but 2nd is not too bad. Mehr-Wenige takes fine 3rd, considering his many attacks today it’s more than decent, his attacks also reward him with the king of mountain jersey, he got enough points with this podium to grab it from Quintana at the end.
Gerdemann finishes 4th while another constant attacker in Sinekwitz rounds off the Top 5. Konovalovas and Reus are the only remaining riders that we couldn’t see at the front that come with same time gap as the leader.
Stage Results
1
Lars Boom
Rothaus - Aegon
3h35'21
2
Carlos Betancourt
Hollister Pro Cycling
s.t.
3
Dietmar Mehr-Wenige
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
4
Linus Gerdemann
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
5
Patrik Sinkewitz
Team Vueling Airlines
s.t.
6
Timothy Duggan
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
7
Simon Geschke
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
8
Vasili Kiryenka
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
9
Jiri Hudecek
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Dries Devenyns
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
11
Ignas Konovalovas
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
12
Kai Reus
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
s.t.
Very annoyingly it seems I didn’t export the results for this stage, so sorry for that guys. Those 12 riders had the same time on today’s stage while the next big group over lost seconds on the 12 leaders. No massive gaps, but enough to stir up the GC a little. You can work out how much a rider lost specifically by looking in the GC standings, however most team leaders that weren't mentioned didn't loose much at all as can be seen in GC standings.
Lars Boom
Carlos Betancourt
Dietmar Mehr-Wenige
Timothy Duggan
Vasili Kiryenka
Jiri Hudecek
Dries Devenyns
Ignas Konovalovas
